


Dragon Age: Armada

by SuperBee96



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 15:52:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12413244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperBee96/pseuds/SuperBee96
Summary: A threat unlike any other is beginning it's attack on the entirety of Thedas. Can the Inquisition, and the number of heroes scattered across the land, hope to save their world, or is this finally the end?





	Dragon Age: Armada

Dragon Age- Armada

 

Chapter One- The Dark Abyss

Somewhere deep within the endless ocean of stars which blanketed the night sky, there was a being without form, nor a name. Its age was undefinable, though it did not seem to be immortal. If this being was to have a name, “The Collective” would have served its purpose, for this being was well beyond any mortal comprehension. The Collective had the ability to take shape if it so wished, but it had not needed to do so in time beyond counting. For through its creations, the Collective could see all that they witnessed, hear the thoughts in their minds, and feel what they experienced.  
  
  
It took many cycles to master these strange abilities, but despite it all, the Collective still reigned silently within the dark emptiness. It spent it’s days, which easily slipped into years and decades, waiting for the next cycle to start anew, studying the history and the societies of those who came long before, which were now preserved forever within the Collective’s seemingly omnipotent creations.  
The Collective had heard its creations take many names and titles, and after translating thousands upon thousands of long-lost languages, it found that there was not a single positive designation to be found. It was to be expected, but the Collective had thought, or merely expected, for someone to have finally come to the realization that it’s creations were not, in fact, the bane of all existence. The methodologically may have been crude to the organic mind, but if that was supposed to make the Collective second-guess itself, it didn’t. The Collective was not designed to second-guess.  
  
  
The Collective, was in fact, designed to learn. But something so expansive can learn only so much before it seeks out new knowledge of its own accord. And when the student became the teacher, the entire galaxy shook in its wake. As per their newest titles, promptly given by the now extinct Protheans, the Reaper’s had been born.  
Even the Collective could not say how many Reaper’s it had created over the countless years. Each Reaper housed the genetic material of a dominant species within its massive shell, and over time, the Collective could begin to understand each species and culture which the Reapers harvested. The process took hundreds of years, but in it’s highly controlled experiment, the Collective discovered more than it could have possibly imagined when it was first activated.  
  
  
But sometimes, in the long waits as the next cycle came to fruition, even the Collective could lose itself in the elusive unknown. What civilizations existed within other galaxies, and what could the Collective potentially learn from them? And instead of merely harnessing the raw power of eezo, how could it be manufactured, and what gave it’s almost unnatural properties?  
There were ever more questions, and the Collective would not be satisfied until it received answers. But on one fateful day, the Collective was made aware of a sudden massive output of energy careening through the cosmos. It was as powerful as the strongest supernovas, but highly condensed and situated harmlessly on a minuscule moon within the Hawking Eta cluster. Everything about this sudden event gave the Collective pause. It was unnatural in almost every way, but merely the fact that the moon was not utterly obliterated instantaneously was what faltered the Collective most of all.  
  
  
The next cycle was at least a hundred years away, if not more, based on the evidence of the current species and their evolution, but the Collective refused to let this unceasing anomaly go unstudied. Reaching out into the expansive emptiness of deep space, the Collective awakened one of it’s earliest, and most powerful creations. It called itself Armada, and its name reflected every trait of this monstrous Reaper.  
Powered by the genetic material of an ancient species called the Xaeanicks, Armada was the largest Reaper in the entire fleet, towering high above even Harbinger. The Collective did not intend to make it this way, for Harbinger was the first, and the most powerful of the Reapers, but Armada, just like the species which it was birthed from, defied all expectations.  
  
  
The Xaeanicks were a partially bestial species, and did not have over-bearing technological achievements, but with their sheer population, ferocity, and innate abilities allowing them to harness dark energy, much like the asari of the current era, the Xaeanicks proved themselves to be one of the long-lasting species ever to face against the Reapers. And when their homeworld finally burned, and they were harvested to fuel the next Reaper Core, their reeling population called for a much larger Core, and therefore, a much larger shell. Armada, though rarely ever activated, would wreak destruction and chaos no matter where it was, and who it faced against.  
  
  
Unable to tell if this sudden output of energy was some sort technological experiment which had gone terribly awry, or something much more complicated, the Collective concluded that it would be most prudent to send Armada to investigate if anything was to go wrong. Calling out to Armada, it was a mere moment before it’s massive crimson visual receptors began to eerily glow in the darkness of space. It’s massive legs stretched out into the void, and the Reaper slowly turned its gaze towards the circular galaxy swirling brightly before it.  
“Where is Sovereign?” Armada immediately began to question as it’s massive body began to make its way towards the cluster of glistening stars. “Where is Harbinger?”  
  
  
“It is not yet time for the next harvest.” the Collective spoke through the stars, it’s voice carrying on for light-years. “There has been a...disturbance.”  
  
  
“Disturbance?” the confusion was clear in Armada’s mind. Despite the natural chaos of life, it was almost unheard of for the Collective to focus solely on one singular aberration.  
  
  
“I have detected a sustained event.” the Collective said to Armada. “By all calculations, this output of energy should not have only destroyed the moon it originated on, but everything else within the solar system. You are to investigate this moon, ascertain the situation, and react accordingly. Whether it be to destroy the anomaly itself, or the entire moon. Avoid the Relays at all costs, for the next to be harvested are not yet aware of our presence. The Collectors shall accompany you if they are so needed.”  
  
  
“It will be done.”

—

By the time Armada reached the Hawking Eta cluster, the strange event had all but dissipated. The moon remained highly intact, but even still Armada could pick up the unnatural readings emitting from the small moon. The entire moon was surrounded by a strange energy unlike anything previously experienced by the Reapers. But all accounts, the unnatural energy seemed to have more potency then even biotics, and with the memories of the ancient and powerful Xaeanicks still very much alive within Armada’s mind, it was as curious as it was unnerving.  
  
  
Armada reached the moon long before the Collectors did, but the Reaper did not immediately swoop down onto the moon and start razing it to the ground. Despite what the Collective had advised, Armada detected no advanced technology within the moon, despite its rampant population. With no immediate danger in sight, Armada situated itself on the large planet which held the moon in orbit. Without any native technology to integrate with, Armada was forced to wait until the large Collector vessel came looming out of the darkness, landing close to the massive Reaper. It was only then that the work began.  
Using the Collectors as agents and infiltrators, Armada had numerous small parties enter the atmosphere of the moon, to observe the native population and to collect any information regarding the strange moon. The process was agonizingly slow, for the only sources of information the Collectors were able to bring back to the Reaper was primitive paper texts and stone tablets. Looking through the Collectors  
eyes, Armada spent a great deal of time translating the numerous languages, surprised by the sheer diversity of the small moon.  
  
  
Armada soon came to know the moon as Thedas, and it was home to many different species. The Collectors informed Armada of people who lived within the earth, deep underground, calling themselves dwarves. There were also those calling themselves human, which gave the Reaper pause, for it knew of another place which humans called home. It was a curiosity, and Armada could not help but wonder how different humans could have been found light-years away from each other in an utterly underdeveloped society, but that was not it’s primary focus. There were also the elves, which were little more than humans with pointed ears, but it was two other species which really drew in Armada’s attention. One was a species of people resembling a combination of human and animal, for despite there bi-pedal, and seemingly intelligent nature, they towered above the other native species and most had large horns placed upon their heads. They called themselves Qunari, but even then, it was not them that really interested Armada, for the Qunari were seemingly indoctrinated into many absurd beliefs. What drew the Reaper in was the bestial creatures who shared the underground with the dwarves; creatures dubbed the Darkspawn.  
  
  
Looking at the information before it, Armada knew that it needed more before anything could be decided. With the strange anomaly now gone, Armada’s new focus was to understand how this seemingly primitive species could harness what could not be considered anything else but magic. Armada had heard the term used many times before on other planets which were now little more than smoldering ash, but it was not until the Reaper found Thedas that it believed anything worthy to hold that name. Somehow, though seemingly willpower alone, many of the people of Thedas could harness the elements, alter reality with their thoughts, and summon creatures which Armada could only assume to be from a separate dimension altogether. Sending the Collectors back and forth from the vibrant moon, Armada delved deeper and deeper into its long history, in search of the answers it sought. But to its great annoyance, there were little answers to be found.  
  
  
As predicted, the natives of Thedas were primitive in their beliefs, despite the natural power they held. Armada could only feel boiling anger as all it found was doctrines speaking of an illusive god-figure called the Maker, who was punishing his creations with the arrival of the Darkspawn. There was little to be found about the science and nature of this “magic”, only more and more non-answers disguised as religion. It was infuriating. The only physical evidence Armada found was mentions of the material known as Lyrium, but even it’s origins was an utter mystery. Everything else was shrouded in religious dogma, which seemingly the majority of the population was following.  
  
  
The more Armada studied this aberration of a civilization, the more it came to realize that it needed to be destroyed. The population was nowhere near enough to fuel another Reaper Core, so harvesting them was not a viable solution. If these magic-wielding people ever managed to reach into the stars, using their powerful abilities and summoning entire armies from a separate dimension, Armada was not even sure if the entirety of the Reaper fleet could stop them. And so the Reaper chose to act before such an event could ever take place. But it would not be quite so simple.  
  
  
Despite the tensions around the moon, the people of Thedas seemed to be generally unified. And in more recent years, by what Armada had gathered to texts and papers, there were a number of...unique individuals, heroes, which would constantly rally the people together in a singular goal. And if their “magic” was as powerful as Armada suspected, a rallied people would prove to be immensely dangerous, even for the Reaper itself.  
  
  
Armada first took notice when it saw that a single person rose an entire country up against the dreaded Darkspawn, during a time called the Blight, and despite being utterly outmatched and outnumbered, this person still managed to succeed in their mission. He was called the Hero of Fereldan, but his name was Darrian Tabris. One of the pointed-eared elves, Tabris apparently was raised up from poverty into the high station of Grey Wardens, sworn enemies of the Darkspawn. But as Armada looked deeper into the Warden, it was not that he succeed that interested the Reaper, but it was how he did it.  
After a bloody betrayal at the ruins of a place called Ostagar, Darrian, and another Warden by the name of Alistair began to raise an army against the Darkspawn in the midst of a brewing civil war. Traveling to all corners of Fereldan, Darrian, Alistair, and an ever-increasing party of people came to their aid.  
  
  
Darrian first made his mark when he saved a number of magic-wielders, or mages, inside their own home, from the inter-dimensional creatures which swarmed the spiraling tower. And with the aid of the rescued mages, Darrian was able to save the life of a noble child, and bring forth an alliance with a powerful human lord called Arl Eamon, after curing him of a seemingly incurable poison. It seemed, despite the unlikeliness of it, Darrian Tabris had the affinity to defy all the odds placed against him. Armada made sure to take note of that.   
  
  
Through means that were disclosed through aging texts, Darrian also brokered peace between his more wild kin, the Dalish elves, and the monstrous beasts called Werewolves. But when it came time to bring the dwarves into the fold, it seemed pragmatism finally took hold. With the device known as the Anvil of the Void, Darrian, and a dwarven Paragon by the name of Branka, subjected living souls into being transformed into massive creatures of rock and metal called golems. Despite the number of lives that these golems saved when the Darkspawn finally unleashed their full army, it was rumored that this choice took a heavy toll on the Grey Warden. But despite that, under the rule of King Bhelen, the dwarves slowly began to prosper once again.  
  
  
But that was not all. During an event called the Landsmeet, despite being a lowly elf with no political standing, Darrian rallied the nobles against the man who betrayed him and so many others at Ostagar, Loghain, and sentenced him to death, whose life was taken by the next King, Alistair. Loghain’s daughter was relieved of her right to rule, and Alistair took up the throne of his father, despite not wanting it in the slightest.  
  
  
But Darrian Tabris was not the only one who, after their lives were drastically changed by the arrival of the Darkspawn, who would later become a widely accepted hero. During the early of the Blight, a young woman by the name of Marian Hawke and her family escaped the clutches of the animalistic creatures, fleeing to a large city called Kirkwall. And while it wasn’t nearly as world threatening as the Blight, the actions of Hawke had many further-reaching implications.  
  
  
While much of Hawke’s life was not documented, for she was both a recluse and widely-known apostate, there were a number of people who claimed to have known and worked with the mage. What started out as a simple expedition into the dwarven Deep Roads, in search of ancient riches, turned out to be something much more dangerous than they thought. And while the expedition did eventually pay off, allowing Hawke to purchase their old family estate, her brother had left her company to join the Templar Order, which was growing increasingly violent against the mages of Kirkwall, who were suspected of rampantly using forbidden magics.  
  
  
It was not until a bloody coup erupted in the city streets by a large group of Qunari led by a leader called the Arishok, that Hawke began to really gain any kind of recognition. After defending one her traveling companions, and defeating the Arishok in a duel to the death, Hawke was titled the Champion of Kirkwall, and despite her being a revealed apostate, was given free reign of the city.  
  
  
But it was only to get worse from there on. The Templars began to over-extended their reach, and the mages lashed out defensively in response, some of them using the very same magic they had been accused of using before, which only made the Templar that much more aggressive. And after the death of her mother at the hands of an insane mage, Hawke’s outlook on mages greatly soured, despite being one herself. And when her very own lover, another mage by the name of Anders, utterly destroyed a holy place of worship called the Chantry, that was seemingly the last straw. Though unable to execute her lover, Hawke had Ander’s imprisoned for his actions, before siding against her mage brethren and joining the side of the Templars. After the Mage Rebellion, sparked by Ander’s actions, was quelled, Hawke disappeared from all public eye, and for a long time, not even her brother Carver, nor her friend Varric could point anyone in her direction.  
  
  
And then came the Inquisition. Armada found itself both impressed and intimated by the success of the newly created faction, under the leadership of a human warrior named Aedris Trevelyan. By what Armada gathered, Aedris was the one who ended the anomaly which the Collective had first discovered, which the people of Thedas called the Breach. It appeared to be a portal of some sort, and with the aid of something called the Anchor, Aedris was able to manipulate and close off access points to the portals, which unending hordes of “demons” would constantly pour out of.  
  
  
Thrust into the middle of a supposed holy war, Aedris took the mantle of The Herald of Andraste, and caught between two opposing sides, Aedris allied with the Templar Order. Working together, the Templars and Inquisition sealed the Breach, only to find themselves the target of a god-like being calling itself Corypheus. With a number of mages under his control, Corypheus caused much destruction in the countries of Orlais and Fereldan. The Herald was raised to the station on Inquisitor, and after saving the group of soldiers known as the Grey Wardens and bringing them into their ever-growing army, and despite all of Corypheus attempts at destroying the Inquisitor, and reaching into a place the people of Thedas called “The Fade”, which Armada assumed to be what was at the other end of the Breach, the Inquisitor foiled Corypheus at every turn. The people of Thedas called it divine intervention, but Armada could not believe in such primitive ideals. By Armada’s viewpoint, Corypheus entered a world which he was not needed, and therefore, was singled out and defeated. Despite his obvious power, it seemed a lack of subtly was Corypheus's downfall. And despite their overbearing appearance and raw power, the Reapers knew subtly well. If they didn’t, their existence would be widely known across the galaxy, defeating their very purpose.  
  
  
This was proven by Armada’s consistent patience as his Collector agents continued to bring it the information it required. It took months upon months before Armada began to learn what it needed to about the world of Thedas. It was clear that despite their lack of contact with the outside countries, it was the place called Tevinter which bore the strongest threat, for with the mages in Orlais and Fereldan all but exterminated, it was the magisters of Tevinter which would prove most dangerous to the Reaper.  
  
  
And no more than two years later, after much waiting and examinations, and it’s never-ceasing gaze upon the moon orbiting around it, Armada was ready to begin. Over the span of these years, the Collectors had abducted a large number of the various species of Thedas, after which Armada altered them to meet its needs. The Reaper had grown such a large army, that in fact, with the added assistance of the Collectors, Armada was not sure if it would even have to land on the lively moon. However, it’s unquenchable curiosity with the fundamentals of magic, the Fade, and the strange creatures from the separate dimension, Armada was not going to allow this to happen without it’s presence.  
  
  
And with an echoing blare of its world-shattering horn, Armada’s several legs pushed itself off the rocky planet it had remained fixated on for years, and slowly began it’s descent onto the lush moon, with the Collector ship closely following suit. The end of Thedas had come


End file.
